In its continuing effort to ensure fledgling charter schools are providing quality instruction to New Orleans students, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted this week to revoke the charters of four elementaries: Benjamin Mays, Crocker, Intercultural Charter and Pride College Prep.

In each case, the schools lost their charters because of poor academic performance, and will either be shut down or transition to new management at the end of the school year.

Also on Wednesday, four charter management organizations that already run campuses in New Orleans -- ReNEW, Crescent City, New Orleans College Prep and Arise -- got state approval to take over additional struggling schools.

ReNEW and Crescent City requested specific elementary schools that are run directly by the RSD: Paul Habans and Henry Schaumburg, respectively. However, district officials said they can assign the groups to any school in need of new management. Officials expect to announce the charter assignments in the next few weeks, RSD deputy superintendent Dana Peterson said.

A Benjamin Mays student asks the board to keep her school open (Dec. 4, 2012).Danielle Dreilinger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

A fifth charter was approved to transfer control of Mary D. Coghill Elementary from the RSD to a community group. The current principal will remain in place.

BESE governs the 65 schools that are under the state Recovery School District, which took over most New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina. Last year, the state deemed only two charters unacceptable. But as the reform movement has become more ensconced, the call to pull failing charters has grown. This year, the state raised its failing mark from 65 to 75 on a scale of 200.

New charters are assessed in their fourth and fifth years and may be shut down at either of those points. If in the fifth year the school scores at least a D or has substantially raised student achievement, its charter is renewed.

This year, three schools in their fourth year - Arise Academy, Lake Area New Technology Early College High School, and Success Preparatory Academy - were given one-year extensions, with a more permanent decision on their fate slated for next year.

"The bar and the standards keep going up," RSD superintendent Patrick Dobard said. "The competition and the level of quality is rising all the time." For instance, starting in the spring, school performance will be measured on a scale of 150, not 200.

Five additional schools in their fifth year received renewals for varying time periods, based on their evaluations. Sci Academy in eastern New Orleans, part of the local Collegiate Academies network, was awarded a 10-year charter renewal because of its strong academic performance. Its 2012 school performance score of 111.8 -- grade B -- makes it the highest-ranked high school in RSD's portfolio.

Even though Miller-McCoy had a 2012 performance score of only 71, equivalent to an F, it was awarded a 3-year renewal because it raised student performance by at least 20 points, according to the education department's evaluation.

In other matters, BESE on Wednesday elected a new slate of officers for 2013: Chas Roemer of Baton Rouge, president; James Garvey Jr. of Metairie, vice president; and Holly Boffy of Baton Rouge, treasurer/secretary.

The board also decided not to authorize textbooks for a new 7-year cycle. State superintendent of education John White said most of the books advanced by the department's textbook review committee didn't sufficiently align with the national standards that the state will fully introduce in 2014.

Given that the state hasn't finished creating new tests that use the "Common Core" standards, White said there is no reasonable way for publishers to "align their textbooks fully with assessments that haven't been produced." He emphasized that local districts can still buy any books they want even if the state hasn't entered into new textbook-buying contracts.